Rabbi Randy Kafka: Generosity as a spiritual practice

Tuesday

Aug 31, 2010 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2010 at 1:07 AM

We tend to think of generosity primarily in terms of the willingness to give money or material possessions. But actually, in Jewish tradition, financial giving to support the community as well as those less fortunate is considered an obligation, not an expression of generosity.

Rabbi Randy Kafka

We tend to think of generosity primarily in terms of the willingness to give money or material possessions. But actually, in Jewish tradition, financial giving to support the community as well as those less fortunate is considered an obligation, not an expression of generosity.

Tsedakah, which is often erroneously translated as charity, actually means righteousness. So financial giving is understood to be an expression of justice and covenant, not so much of generosity. Supporting the community as well as those less fortunate is just what we Jews do, regardless of how we feel.

Generosity, on the other hand, is understood in Judaism to be a movement of the heart. There is a quality of openness and giving that arises in the heart and manifests as a sharing of self as well as a sharing of material possessions.

I believe that generosity is both an attitude and an activity. It is a fundamental spiritual practice, closely associated with the practice of gratitude.

Generosity is about acts of kindness, and reaching out beyond the self. It’s about sharing our unique gifts with one another, generating connections and then deepening them.

Last year my husband underwent triple bypass heart surgery. When the cardiologist showed us the results of the angiogram prior to surgery, he pointed out a miraculous thing – in an effort to counter the life-threatening effects of the blocked arteries, the body had spontaneously generated a tiny new blood vessel spanning from a partially blocked but still functioning artery to a blocked one. A new, life-giving connection.

Reaching out in generosity and connecting with one another is life-giving. Not only for us as individuals, but also for the community. When you are generous to someone else, you benefit as well. The life force in you is strengthened as well. In truth we are not the separate, autonomous beings we imagine ourselves to be.

The bigger our sense of Ego with a capital E, the less generous we are able to be. The more there is a Me, there is also a strong sense of what is Mine, and a fear of losing what is Mine, and therefore less of a willingness to share what is Mine.

But of course the paradox is that in giving, we actually grow. Whereas in holding on tightly, we shrink.

Every High Holidays we read: “On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed – who shall live, and who shall die.” How do we understand these words? Here’s one way of understanding what it means, stated simply: We just don’t know. It could be us.

Now given that we just don’t know, we still have the choice of how to think and act in the face of uncertainty. We can become fearful and closed, or we can live however long we are going to live with a generous spirit. We can shrink and harden, or we can expand outward and make new connections.

As we approach Yom Kippur, the day of being forgiven and reborn, may we all strive to become more generous both with ourselves and with others. May we overcome our fears and doubts, and reach out beyond the narrowness of the Ego to connect with someone new.

In so doing we may gain a new heart, as it is prophesied in the book of Ezekiel: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.”

Rabbi Kafka serves Temple Kol Tikvah in Sharon, Mass., an independent Reform congregation formed in the merging of Temple Israel South Shore of Easton and Klal Yisrael of Sharon. She can be reached at rkafka@comcast.net

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